China’s Tiangong space station may only be a fraction of the size of the International Space Station — but its three modules have nonetheless provided scientists with invaluable real estate to conduct some groundbreaking research over the last five years.
The T-shaped orbital outpost can house up to six taikonauts, features two labs, and will soon even be joined by a massive, Hubble-like space telescope.
It also features a small aeroponic cultivation system that works by watering plants with a fine mist of nutrients, thereby greatly reducing the amount of water it needs compared to conventional, soil-based cultivation and hydroponics.
Now crew on board the station are ready to harvest the literal fruits of their labor. As state-run news network Global Times reports, astronauts plucked a “bumper crop” of “space tomatoes” from vines that were grown inside the system.
Previously released footage shows the presumably hungry astronauts showing off small vines loaded with yellow and red cherry tomatoes inside a box-like growing environment. The roots can be monitored through small windows as they’re being misted by the solution. A specially designed full-spectrum LED panel provides the plants with the light they need.
Tomatoes are only the beginning. According to Global News, the crew will soon try to grow wheat, carrots, and medicinal plants as well, to further investigate the capabilities of the space cultivation system.
Researchers hope the experiment could help inform long-duration missions into deep space, giving future space travelers a way of growing their own sustenance on their way to faraway destinations.
Separate experiments on board the space station have already yielded space-grown lettuce as well. Astronauts have also planted green onions.
NASA astronauts have similarly grown tomatoes on board the ISS for many years now, studying how genetic elements of plants grown in space can adapt and survive spaceflight, among other scientific objectives.
Besides providing future astronauts with a way of sustaining themselves, there is a litany of other reported benefits as well — like the psychological upsides of gardening in space, as NASA noted in a 2023 update, from boosted morale to an overall increased quality of life.
The harvest on board the International Space Station has been so bountiful, a rogue tomato was recovered in late 2023 by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio — after it went missing just shy of a year earlier during an experiment testing hydroponic and aeroponic techniques.
At the time, NASA hailed the harvest as the first-ever tomatoes grown in space
The discovery of the tomato’s desiccated remains solved a longstanding mystery, as Rubio was initially accused of eating them.
“Our good friend Frank Rubio, who headed home [already], has been blamed for quite a while for eating the tomato,” NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli said during a December 2023 live stream.
“But we can exonerate him,” she added at the time. “We found the tomato.”
More on tomatoes: NASA Proudly Shows Off Desiccated Tomatoes Lost in Space Station Crevice
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